Document Fields - problems and questions

I need a field that will store a File Cabinent asset, I tried the Document type but have the following problems:[LIST=1]
[*]The QuickTime tif viewer plugin is garbage and crashes FF 50% of the time.  I have installed a plugin called Alterna.  It's awesome and works VERY well.  The problem is FF uses the QuickTime plugin when a Document field is used.  If I click on a tif from the Files tab from a customer record the Alterna plugin is used.  I don't understand why different plugins would be used.
[*]I don't want to see the image on the record, I would like to see a link to it that if I click it will open the image, but to default to the image is terribly limiting and makes the Document type unusable as it slows loading so much and once it does load the tiny thumbnail is useless.  To make things worse you can't click on the thumbnail to see a full version.[/LIST]Why is this field type setup to render as an embedded file that will trigger a plugin load?  In most cases the thumbnail will be so small